FOREST CITY GREEN LAVA SKYLINE

ABOUT

LAVA won 2nd prize in an international competition to design a new city in Malaysia.

LAVA’s concept sees the city defined not as one iconic building, nor as a skyline, but as a central public space, a real forest. Its an inverse city skyline where the icon of the city is a public space, not an object/building. This central space demonstrates the equation: PEOPLE = CITY. From an object to a place.

Future city notions are embedded into LAVA’s overall concept – a ‘public city’, a central public space surrounded by buildings; a ‘layered city’, where people, railways and traffic are separated with vehicles underground; a ‘loop city’, a closed loop system reusing it’s resources and controlling the out-flow; and a ‘sponge city’, with recycling processes hidden underground.

A group of buildings step down towards this green public centre and are an architectural interpretation of the rainforest, with various layers of program and vertical stratification.

Forest City, by Chinese developer Country Garden, is a new 20 square kilometre green smart city on reclaimed land in southern Malaysia.

These are the ingredients that have inspired the design of Olio Kensington Street, a new restaurant in inner Sydney by LAVA.

LAVA created a passeggiata, using Sicilian tiles, that flows through the restaurant and connects the kitchen, bar, dining and rooftop areas. This circulation system subdivides the space, separating serving spaces and served spaces. This is also expressed in the ceiling where a layered green ribbon reflects the floor layout.

Two pieces of ‘furniture’, free flowing joinery elements for kitchen and bar, and soft, dripping, LED-lit lines on the joinery interpret the idea of flowing oil.

The restaurant is an exciting new addition to the transformation of the Chippendale area.